MBABANE- The death of South African Judge, Philipp Levisohn, who was presiding in the E12 million CTA fraud case, has thrown the matter into disarray.
This is because prominent businessman, Sandile Dlamini, who was implicated together with Polycarp Dumisa Dlamini and Mpumelelo Mamba, has filed an application for the release of his top-of-the-range vehicles and property, which were taken as exhibits in the matter.
However, the prosecution has opposed the application and accused Sandile of taking advantage of a trial record that is incomplete.
The Crown has contended that Sandile wants the matter not to continue.
Judge Sabelo Masuku has since granted an order for the preservation of the assets.
The assets include a blue Porsche 928 GTS sedan and a maroon Porsche Cayenne Turbo Station Wagon.
Also included are two properties, both of which are situated in the urban area of Mbabane.
The prosecution had filed the application through an affidavit by Prosecuting Counsel Elsie Matsebula, who submitted that the purpose of the preservation order is to ensure that the property is preserved pending the outcome of an application for a forfeiture order in terms of Section 50 (1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (POCA).
He said the property is the proceeds of a number of criminal activities against the Government of Eswatini, through the Central Transport Adminstration (CTA).
The criminal activity was perpetrated by the then management of the CTA, acting in furtherance of a common purpose, together with a legal person called Protronics Networking Corporation (Pty) Ltd.
Matsebula said evidence shows that at all material times, Protronics was represented by its director, that being Sandile, in the commission of the criminal activity.
The submissions by the Crown remain allegations pending the conclusion of the trial.
Matsebula said the property listed is the proceeds of unlawful activities in terms of POCA and that they have been under the custody of the police since the granting of a restraint order in respect thereof in terms of the Serious Offences (Confiscation of Proceeds) Act No.8 of 2011 on July 19, 2011.
He said the risk of dissipation is, as such, minimised on the facts of the matter and that even though Sandile has already instituted his own proceedings challenging the criminal trial, applying for a permanent stay of the proceedings and other things including the release of the assets, the preservation in terms of the POCA is a preliminary independent process that must be undertaken for every intended subsequent forfeiture application.
According to the application by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), the criminal activity was committed between the years 2005 and 2007.
“The modus operandi in short was that Protronics, through its director, would submit fraudulent invoices for payment to the CTA management, who would pass them on to the Treasury Department for payment, even though no work had been done by Protronics. CTA management would append their signatures on the invoices, thereby authorising government to effect payments to Protronics. I hasten to add that this happened as a strategy to siphon money from the government,” Matsebula said in the application.
He said with the money ultimately paid to Protronics, Sandile went on to purchase two luxury high-range motor vehicles, as well as two immovable properties located in Mbabane.
“All these properties are on reasonable grounds believed to be proceeds of criminal activities and thus liable to be preserved and eventually forfeited to the State in terms of POCA,” said Matsebula.
Regarding Polycarp, Matsebula submitted that he was charged and indicted with four others for the criminal activity issue herein, which constituted of various counts of fraud or theft, money laundering, corruption, as well as making false statements before a commission.
He said under the leadership of his attorneys, Polycarp pleaded guilty to all the charges and that a separation of trials was applied for and granted, hence he was tried and sentenced based on his plea, to nine years imprisonment of which three were suspended thereof.
Polycarp, Matsebula stated, later gave evidence against his co-accused at the main criminal trial.
Regarding Mamba, the court papers state that he joined the CTA as an apprentice engineer in 1980 and was subsequently promoted to the positions of operations engineer and later, senior mechanical engineer.
He was appointed as the Senior Mechanical Engineer as from September 1, 2005.
It was submitted that he had a conditional duty (based on the non-availability of the designated signatories), as a reliever, to certify invoices confirming that services had indeed been rendered to the CTA.
Mamba reportedly certified a number of the invoices that are the subject of the criminal charges in respect of the CTA affairs in question and was charged together with Polycarp and the three others.
The court papers state that Sandile was appointed as co-director of Protronics on June 30, 1997, a position he held during the days of criminal activity perpetrated against CTA.
It is also highlighted that the trial continues for Sandile, Mamba and Protronics who were, subsequent to their failed application, called upon to put their defence.
At this stage, the papers state, the remaining accused will be called upon to mount their defence.
Their case was tried by the late Levinsohn who passed on when the matter was at the defence stage around February 2023.
As detailed by Matsebula in the application, the crucial available evidence placed through the criminal trial to date is that of Polycarp, who openly admitted to the court that all the payments made to Protronics were not in fact for work done by it, but were all fraudulent.
Polycarp, Matsebula submitted, told the court the role he played in the engineering of the fraudulent payments frankly.
“He was extensively cross-examined by the legal representatives of Sandile and Mpumelelo, who also made allegations that he desired prosecution immunity and had an axe to grind against Mpumelelo. He successfully refuted these allegations,” submitted Matsebula.
He explained that the application for the preservation had to from time-to-time, refer to the evidence sourced from the criminal trial because it was given under oath in public proceedings. Matsebula drew the attention of the court to the fact that the property sought to be preserved was previously, and remained, under court-sanctioned restraint, which is dependent on the outcome of the criminal trial, in terms of the Serious Offences Act.
He said the Act was repealed by the POCA, but the proceedings already instituted under the same Act were to proceed as if it had not been repealed. One of the prayers of the application is that Sandile be authorised to continue to stay or live with his family in the immovable property mentioned up until the forfeiture stage or any order of the court, subject to the usual maintenance of the same and paying all expenses associated with the property.
Another prayer was for Detective Superintendent Wilson Dube to seize the property and have it placed under his effective control in order to take care, administer it and or do any act necessary for that purpose pending finalisation of forfeiture proceedings.
…over E10 million siphoned in three months
MBABANE – An amount of E10 633 600 was paid by government for services that were never rendered during the months of March 2006, November 2006 and January 2007.
Also, about E1 272 600 total cheques were paid from June 2005 to October 2005.
This is said to have occurred as part of the schemes initiated by the Central Transport Administration (CTA) management and Protronics, a company under the directorship of businessman Sandile Dlamini.
Detailing some of the payments, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) submitted that Protronics submitted an invoice of E244 800 during the period of August 2005 for what was titled ‘carried out vehicle assessment condition analysis, evaluation Manzini Region’ and the quantity is 680 vehicles.
The invoice, the court papers state, was certified by Mpumelelo Mamba and Polycarp Dlamini explained that the signing was an act of certifying that the work was done.
He then passed the invoice payment, clearly knowing that the work invoiced for was never done.
These claims remain allegations pending the conclusion of the criminal trial.
Protronics is also said to have submitted an invoice dated September 13, 2005 for the amount of E388 800 claiming to have carried out vehicle mechanical inspections, condition assessment and evaluation on 1080 vehicles.
Again, it was submitted in court, the invoice was certified by Mamba and Polycarp then passed it on for payment yet no work had been done.
Another invoice, dated October 3, 2005, for the amount of E117 000 was submitted by Protronics invoicing for ‘carried out vehicle assessment condition analysis and evaluation on 325 motor vehicles Lubombo Region’.
The invoice was certified and payment made and the work was never done.
The court papers state that several inspectors from various CTA garages countrywide were interviewed and they all denied working with Protronics on any vehicle assessment, condition analysis and evaluations.
According to Matsebula, the summary evidence shows that the supporting evidence to CTA by Protronics was fabricated by inflating the number of vehicles, duplicating vehicles and or reflected shortcomings.
He said some details were deliberately missing, yet Protronics claimed that it was invoicing for motor evaluations, despite it not conducting such.
Meanwhile, in the third scheme, Protronics submitted an invoice of about E5 544 000 and a cheque was issued to the company on March 14, 2006 with E4 989 600 deposited on March 16, 2006 to the Standard Bank account number.
There was a withholding tax amount of E554 000 ,which explains the difference.
Again, the alleged services for which Protronics was paid were never rendered and government incurred a loss.
Matsebula said given the foregoing evidence Sandile Dlamini and or Protronics and their co-accused in the main indictment acted individually and or jointly in the furtherance of a common purpose to defraud the Treasury Department and or Eswatini Government for all the aforementioned monies.
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